Andrew Hirst, a father of three young children from the Marktstad Newark in Nottinghamshire, lived life with a breakneck – speed – and loved every minute.
There were 5 hours to support the Olympic ambitions of his 10-year-old son, Freddie, a swimmer at the provincial level. There were regular runs with his daughter Juliana, six years old and already an early, gifted young athlete.
There were school runs, park runs, the strange football game with friends; Happy moments with his wife, Rachael, and cherished walks with Maximilian, his three -year -old son.
A full-time family man, Andrew, even found time to fit in a full-time career, first as a design and technology teacher and more recently as a leader of educational support. Life was fulfilling.
But at the age of 35, Andrew threatens to lose everything. He was recently diagnosed with a cancer -like brain tumor and the prognosis is gloomy.
Andrew is confronted with the future with the same purpose of the goal he has brought to other aspects of his life, and hopeful is a fundraising campaign enough money to obtain a potentially life -saving treatment. Yet his words are loaded with a feeling of what could be lost.
“It only realizes that things have to change, clearly unable to see my children grow up, are unable to grow old with my wife,” says Andrew, whose relationship with Rachael started in 2012. ” Things, that's what made me up the most.
“I always thought that I and my wife would go with retirement. My oldest boy is so determined to swim to Great Britain; I may never see it.
Andrew Hirst, 35, depicted here with his wife Rachael, received a devastating diagnosis last November after he was taken to the hospital after a series of headaches
Andrew is seen in addition to his six -year -old daughter Juliana, an avid runner. He raced by time to raise money for treatment after an aggressive brain tumor was made with him
Andrew and Rachael have three young children-feddie, left, a 10-year-old with dreams of swimming for Great Britain, Juliana, Center and the three-year-old Maximilian, right
'When I started running my daughter, it started because we would look at butterflies and birds, we used to walk [the park course] together.
'With my work here, there and everywhere from Monday to Friday, Saturday morning I was just me and my daughter, just talking about school, strawberries and birds, singing songs and watching ducks.
“Later she wanted to jog a little, and then she went on and said,” Why don't we see how fast we can do it today, Dad? “
“We held hands while we were running. It went on from there. At the moment I can't run with her, so we can't share those moments. It is clear that she can walk and can do it with me, but it is not the same. '
It was last November that things took an unexpected turn.
Andrew started to experience a headache; In the beginning they became more and more intensive in the beginning, so he was eventually asked to contact his doctor. There were no agreements available and so Andrew struck, assuming that he suffered from natural fatigue.
“I got a headache, migraine, but I just put it down on tiredness,” he says, before he is in terms of terms in terms that emphasize how much family the prism is so that he sees life.
'If you are in London one day and you are in Grimsby the next day; You have a 10-year-old who swims with children, two years older than he at County level, is ready to go to the Olympic Games in Australia when he is 18; You have a girl who goes on the treadmill every night and does 2K, then racks, you know, you know, I just put it down on trying too much to juggle. '
But something was wrong.
Andrew and Rachael celebrate on their wedding day; The couple has been together since 2012. “I always thought I and my wife would be retired,” says Andrew
After having undergone a brain operation at the end of last year, Andrew 30 sessions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy continued
The days before Andrew's world was turned upside down were nothing special. During the weekend he started running with the children, mowing the lawn, had friends for dinner; On Monday he helped to moderate a French exam.
Then he came home and it was, he says, “literally as if someone had flown a slight switch.”
“I was sick and couldn't open my eyes,” Andrew recalls, who had a temperature of 107F. 'Just the light on everywhere, even a mobile phone screen, I just couldn't handle it.
'The pain [was overwhelming] – I just lay on the bathroom floor and I couldn't move. I had no energy, I was really hot. I thought it was. '
After a call to 111, Andrew was immediately referred to a doctor, and from there to King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-As-Ashfield, where he was governed by Rachael after the couple were told that it would be faster than calling an ambulance.
Scans revealed a degree 4 glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor with an average survival time of 12-18 months. The most common and aggressive form of primary brain tumor in adults, it is found in the connective tissue of the brain and spreads in a way compared to the roots of a tree, with all the associated challenges that contains surgical removal.
Only a quarter of patients who survive more than a year after the diagnosis, while the survival percentage of five years is around 5%, according to Cancer Research UK.
In the case of Andrew, the swelling was caused by the tumor so seriously that his brain had moved by 8 mm. After having undergone a five -day course steroids to reduce swelling, he was moved to Queen's Medical Center, an educational hospital in Nottingham, where he underwent brain surgery.
Georgina Long, Left, and Richard Scolyer, seen here with their 2024 Australian of the Year Awards, support an experimental but possibly important new approach to brain cancer
“I just wanted to go home,” Andrew recalls. 'I woke up and asked where my running shoes were, where my work laptop was. The cent had not fallen that it was much more serious than I thought. '
Thirty sessions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy followed, but Andrew wanted to look beyond traditional treatment methods.
“It became clear that the treatment I have received has been around for decades,” he says. 'If someone who works in technology, I know that it continues every month every month. It made me ask why the available treatment was not advanced.
“Then I realized that places like Australia, Germany, America, have alternative treatments, things that have not yet been passed on to the NHS. I looked at the alternatives. '
One of those alternatives is targeted treatment with hyperthermia, where the tumor is heated to open the surrounding blood vessels and fill them with more oxygen, stimulating the effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Clinical tests have proven promising, but the experimental approach is not available on the NHS. Apart from taking treatment abroad, Andrew's only option is to have the therapy done privately, which means that they travel to London for three sessions of 90 minutes per week for an amount of around £ 4,000 per month.
The other possibility is Immunotherapy, another experimental treatment that made the headlines last year when Professor Richard Scolyer, a leading Australian pathologist who was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma in June 2023, announced encouraging results after testing his own research into himself.
Together with Georgina Long, his medical co-director of the Melanoma Institute Australia, Scolyer previously led research into immunotherapy drugs that stimulate the immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells. That groundbreaking work has drastically increased the survival rates among advanced melanoma patients and last year the couple share the prestigious Australian of the Year Award.
When learning his diagnosis, scolyer and long to apply the science they had developed. Scolyer, whose treatment included a personalized vaccine that is tailored to its tumor markers, has not so far demonstrated a recurrence.
Although his survival is cautiously praised by oncologists as a potentially important breakthrough, a lot of work still needs to be done. The toxicity of the drugs is a risk in itself, while there is also a danger that treatment can cause fatal swelling.
But Andrew, who desperately tries to contact Scolyer and has calculated that the search for treatment in Australia costs around £ 200,000, is determined not to leave stone undisturbed in the search for a solution that could extend his time with his family .
“There have been many tears, many closed curtains on weekends, away from people and sharing moments together, as you can imagine,” he says. “We all just try to stay positive and continue.”
At the time of writing, a GoFundMe page set up by Andrew collected just over £ 37,000 of the £ 250,000 that he has focused.
The family was deeply touched by the generosity of strangers; Even in the short time we spoke, the total of £ 600 crawled up.
“I understand that I am really lucky and really happy,” says Andrew, who looks beyond his own condition. “There are people, especially in other countries, who are not lucky.”
